The Gift of Life

As a nation, Americans generate more waste than any other nation in the world with 4.5 pounds of municipal solid waste per person per day, 55% percent of which is contributed as residential garbage. (Source 1)

We easily acquire things we want or need, and easily throw out anything we no longer have a use for. We conveniently drop it off at the Solid Waste Transfer Station, never to be seen again. Or is it? Our solid waste goes to the 920 acre Cedar Hills Regional Landfill in Maple Valley.

Life is becoming almost as disposable.

In 2012, over 43,000 people died in traffic accidents in the US. (Source 2) That’s roughly the equivalent of one Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet airplane going missing every 3 days! Yet we rarely hear anything on the news because it is accepted as the risk of being alive in the 21st century.

Roughly 25% of the preventable deaths in the US come from medical errors in hospitals, 20% is related to tobacco, 5% to obesity, and 3.5% to alcohol. Homicides with firearms account for 0.4%. (Source 2)

According to the CDC, there were 765,651 abortions reported in the US in 2010 (Source 3). That is 2,097 abortions per day – 5 Jumbo Jets going missing every day!! – or one abortion every 41 seconds. Why do you think we rarely hear much about this data?

As Christians, how do we determine what we pay attention to and fight for? Are we led by the stories covered by the media, or think personally about what is significant? Do we consider each life to be unique and precious, especially life that has no voice and is shrouded in shame and secrecy?